President Trump told reporters during a White House meeting with governors and lawmakers that he is going to “probably allow” year-round E15 sales without a cap on RIN prices. Pro-RFS groups have applauded this announcement. Matt Tomano, General Manager of the POET plant in Portland, IN was in D.C. to speak with the entire Indiana delegation about the importance of the RFS. He heard about Trump’s announcement shortly before boarding his plane back home.

“I’m really pleased that President Trump has come out and said, ‘Hey, I want to help American farmers right now by allowing the expansion of E15,’ which is going to allow expansion of biofuels in the industry, and in turn create an opportunity for us to purchase more corn. So, there’s great opportunity there. Really excited about what this means for our industry and what this means for American farming.”

He says that opening up year-round sales of E15 will help alleviate some confusion for consumers.

“E15 has been out there for a while now. The E15 that’s been put in place consumers seem to come to it very quickly, but retailers have expressed concern to our industry that the 3-month period that they have to take it out causes a lot of confusion with consumers. End even though consumers like it, they spend a lot of time on educating them to understand the product, and they have to reeducate them when they have to take it out for 3 months of the year.”

Trump also told the group that he has directed his team to investigate rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership after recognizing the troubles agriculture is facing because of his trade policy.